Frescoes in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome (1632-39)

The Palazzo Barberini, residence of the papal family Barberini, set a new standard for Roman palace architecture and its painted decoration. Planning for the expansion of the sixteenth-century structure was first undertaken by Carlo Maderno, then transferred after his death to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who here distinguished himself as an architect for the first time. The Salone on the piano nobile (25 x 15 x 15 m), occupying a story and a half, exceeded in size what had been the largest room in secular context in Rome up to that time: the Salone in the Palazzo Farnese.

The first commission for the painted decor was given to Andrea Sacchi who in 1629-30 painted the ceiling of the largest room in the wing occupied by Anna Colonna, Taddeo Barberini's wife. Sacchi painted here the fresco identified as Triumph of Divina Sapientia (divine wisdom). Then in 1631 Pietro da Cortona's coworkers, Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, Giacinto Gimignani, and Pietro Paolo Baldini painted the adjacent chapel, which was consecrated to the crucified Christ (Cappella del Crocifisso). That patronage explains the chapel's christological program and Pietro da Cortona's altar fresco of the Crucifixion. Once the chapel was completed in 1632, the next space to be painted was the so-called Gallerietta on the north side, whose end walls present the painted coats of arms of Taddeo and Francesco Barberini. Cortona furnished the designs for the mainly decorative painting with painted stucco, but left most of the execution of them to his workshop.

It was the decision of Pope Urban VIII to assign the task of painting the Salone to Pietro da Cortona, who was formally commissioned by Francesco Barberini, the nephew of Urban VIII. The allegorization of the pope and his reign is the dominant idea in the painting of the Salone, the large hall that forms the public centre of the palace. The divinely ordained rule of Urban VIII and the apotheosis of his Tuscan family whose roots could be traced back to antiquity, are cleverly incorporated into a timeless and universal perspective by Pietro da Cortona.

It can be stated that Cortona's ceiling is the key work in Baroque ceiling painting.